First sparring...

[venusflytrap]

OOC: indeed. After all, these bandits don't know that Keran and Tila know how many they are. So one of them remained in hiding.

The hylian let out a laugh.

"Not a pet, little one. Breakfast would be the correct word." he replied.

Keran frowned. "So you're not simply planning to sell her as a slave. I'll have you tell me more about your activities. And..."

But he was cut short by an arrow that came from behind him and almost took away what was left of his poor left ear; fortunately, Keran had the time to dodge the projectile which would have otherwise embedded itself in the back of his head.

Keran wasted no time and shouted at Tila:
"Take care of the archer and then come back to help me ! I can deal with these three, or at least hold them off for a while !"

[Cralex]

Tila's eyes widened at the bandit's matter-of-fact statement.

Breakfast! Is he serious? People don't EAT Kokiri... do they?

Her momentary distraction prevented her from noticing the hidden archer aiming at Keran until it was too late, but Keran was thankfully able to dodge the shot.

Shaking off her distraction as well as the sick feeling in her stomach, she thrust her left hand behind her belt and pulled out her hidden knife. Wanting to stop the archer before he could fire again, she quickly took a step towards the archer's hiding place and threw the small knife as hard as she could at the bush where she saw the arrow come from.

Hopefully, that'll keep him from shooting for a little while.

After sending Ting to the bush to warn her if the archer started to fire again, she turned back towards Keran and began to hurriedly whisper inaudible words under her breath. She felt the familiar surge of magical power in her hand...

Hang on, partner... Just another second...

[venusflytrap]

Keran did not let himself be distracted by the moan of pain he heard behind him. He simply took in that there was one less opponent to be dealt with.

Due to the fact that it was three on one, Keran had been forced to draw out his second wakizashi. He soon realized that although the hylians and the shorter of the two ordonians were clearly no match for him, the other's scars were not only for show. Not only did he hold his own against the sheikah, he was even able to prevent him from effectively getting rid of his two partners.

As he had his hands a bit full, he did not realize immediately that Tila was using magic.

[Cralex]

At last, a glowing fireball appeared, surrounding Tila's free hand. Although the heat coming from the fireball was warm and comforting to her, as it was her magic that fed it, she knew that it would be a painful weapon against whatever she threw it at.

They're too close together! I've gotta make sure I don't hit Keran...

Temporarily forgotten by the remaining bandits, who did not think of her as much of a threat, Tila watched the unfolding fight tensely, praying that Keran would be able to push one of the bandits away from himself without being killed first. Finally, her chance came as one of them stumbled back to avoid one of Keran's attacks. Tila threw her fireball at the bandit. As the fireball left her hand, her free hand immediately went for her magical pouch, looking for her boomerang.

[venusflytrap]

Tila's spell did much more than what she expected it to do: the smaller ordonian took the burning projectile directly and was suddenly engulfed in flames from head to toe; the incendiary blast even caused the hylian's long hair to catch fire.

Yet another reason not to have long hair if you plan to make a living of fighting...

Being a seasoned veteran, the stocky ordonian did not remain dumbstruck for more than a mere second, but unfortunately for him one second was more than enough for Keran to cut his throat in one swift motion.

This fight is over...unless...

"Hey, Tila ! What about the fourth one ?"

[Cralex]

Tila's eyes widened.

That's right! The one in the bushes!

Tila ran over to the bushes where the archer had hid with her sword at the ready. She found the bandit there, lying on the ground with a knife wound in his belly. His bow lay discarded to his side. Clearly in pain and irritated, he had withdrawn Tila's knife from his body and was swiping angrily at Ting, who was easily dodging his swings.

Before the bandit could notice them, Tila used her Floromancy spell to make the surrounding bush disarm the bandit and return the knife to her. She pointed her sword at the bandit, demanding answers.

"Why did you attack us? What did you want?"

[venusflytrap]

The bandit winced. Belly injuries were the worst.

"Urgh...fine. I'll tell you everything. I'm gonna die anyway."

He swore and spat some blood.

"You. And your big friend. We had to gather people...and then we sold them to these things in the Lake...that weird guy would pay us and tell us to bring more...dunno what happened to them. Guess they were eaten. I mean...what else could they do with them ?"

He fainted. He had lost a lot of blood.


OOC: I won't be here for a MONTH ! I'm leaving tomorrow. Have nice holidays !

[Cralex]

Eaten? Are these guys really serious? What kind of a world is this, anyway? People should not be killed and eaten… It’s just wrong!

Tila could hardly believe her ears. Not only was something big really happening at Lake Hyla, lust like the bartender said, but it involved people being eaten as well! Tila was distracted from her thoughts as the bandit fainted. Although he and the other bandits had attacked them and they had fought back, she still held to her teachings from the forest, teachings that told her to value live. For the same reason that she could not accept cannibalism, she also could not help feeling sorry for the dying bandit and wanted to save him.

Ting has only so much healing power, and I don’t know any healing magic. Perhaps Keran…

Tila looked up at Keran with clear sympathy in her eyes.

“Keran, partner, is there anything we can do to save him?”

OOC: Wow, a whole month? Have fun! I’ll see you when you get back. Meanwhile, I’ll continue working on Foo and Raider’s stories, and trying to promote Legion Hero.

[venusflytrap]

Keran inwardly smiled.

"After all this, she's willing to save him...very peculiar. Or should I say, very kokiri." he thought.

He sighed.

"You won't like this, Tila. I can hasten his death, and let him be buried properly. Maybe the Three Goddesses will have mercy on him and pardon him."

The young sheikah looked at Tila with concern.

"You might find it hard, but you should know that if we save him, and hand him over to the guards, he will be judged and punished with a fate worse than death."

[Cralex]

Tila sighed. Although she wanted to save the man, she knew that Keran was right.

I guess that he would suffer more if he was caught then if he died here...

With great reluctance, she turned to Keran.

"Ok, partner. If it has to be done, then do it quickly. There's been enough suffering for one day. Let's try and bring him peace. If you want, I could use my Floromancy spell to help bury him."

With that said, she turned her face away from the dying bandit and closed her eyes tightly.

[venusflytrap]

Keran looked at Tila with concern.

I'll have to cheer her up a bit afterward. This is really tough on a kokiri who's just left her forest.

The sheikah got closer to the dying bandit and whispered:

"Pray, fallen man, for your time has come. Because my partner asked me to, I'll do you a favor. The only favor I can grant you."

The bandit almost smiled. He perfectly understood what that meant. To anybody else, such a favor might have seemed ridiculous, but what can a dying man ask for beside a swift and painless death and a funeral ?

With a swift motion, Keran ended the man's life.

"You may proceed, Tila."

So...floromancy, she said ? I've never seen anything like that.

OC: oh man...this story is getting a bit depressing. I'll have to lighten up the mood !

[Cralex]

Tila turned back toward Keran and nodded. Then, focusing on a nearby tree, she whispered magical words under her breath and focused on the tree’s roots, asking them to help her bury the bandit’s body. To her surprise, the tree failed to hear her at first and remained motionless. She stood there for a moment in confusion before extending her hands toward the tree and trying again. This time, she pushed mentally at the spell as hard as she could and gritted her teeth at the mental effort, and only then did the tree hear her and consent to bury the man. With one slow yet strong motion, a large mass of the tree’s roots rose from underground near the bandit’s body. Like a formless, soil-covered hand, the roots brushed him into the hole left by their rising before coming to rest on top of him. There was now little evidence that a man was buried there except for a single root that Tila had asked to remain above ground to mark his grave. Tila let out a breath that she had held without realizing it.

Wow, I must have used up more magic power then I thought. I didn’t realize that I was almost out…

An awkward silence followed. Tila wasn’t sure what to say, but she tried to rouse herself and the general mood after a moment. Although she still wanted to know if people really ate Kokiri like the bandits said, she intentionally avoided asking about it. She attempted a smile.

“Say, partner. Are you ok? They didn’t hurt you or anything, did they? That was some fight.”

[venusflytrap]

OOC: first of all, I'm not dead. I haven't posted in a while, as my teachers have gone berserk ! I've survived the ordeal, but this has been done at the expense of most of my leisure time...anyway, here I am ! (end of OOC)

Keran dusted himself off and replied, pointing to his torn ear:

"Don't worry about me, I've seen worse. The real question is: are you okay ? You've basically killed someone and met some of the worst kind of, well, "bastards", you'll ever run into."

He paused, knelt and let a hand rest on her shoulder:
"You're a good partner, Tila, and your company is invaluable to me. But if this world is too harsh for your liking, I'll let you do as you wish, even if you decide to go back to your forest. If you think you're strong enough to stay with me and lead the life of a sheikah, that's fine with me as well."

I didn't think we would have to address the issue so soon, but...well, this is something that need to be done anyway.

[Cralex]

OOC: Likewise, my friend. Only now do I have enough leisure time to return. I really hope you are still around.

With Keran’s hand on her shoulder, Tila looked downward and paused to think. To the two of them, it seemed that the silence lasted for a long time, but an observer would have only noticed a delay of a moment. She raised her determined eyes to meet his.

“Thanks for looking out for me, partner, but I’ll be ok. I left the forest to find out more about the world and go on an adventure of my own, but I didn’t think it was going to be an easy trip. I’m not backing out now. I still want to learn more about the world. Besides-”

Her expression grew serious.

“-I want to get to the bottom of all this, the reason that we were attacked. If we had not been as strong and lucky as we were, then we could have been killed or *shiver* eaten. I don’t want to run away and wait for someone else to be ambushed like we were.”

Tila smiled. It was a tired, yet genuine smile.

“How about it, partner? Let’s try and get some sleep tonight and press on to Lake Hyla tomorrow morning? I think I can handle traveling with a Sheikah. Who gets the first watch?”

[venusflytrap]

Heh. She has a strong will. Especially for a kokiri who has just left her forest.

Keran smiled and patted his smaller partner on the back.

"Good. That's the spirit ! We'll deal with whoever is behind all that and show him that no foul act shall remained unpunished !"

His expression grew serious.

"But there's something that's bugging me...how should I put it..."

He rubbed his chin.

"I think there's more to it than cannibalism. The bandit spoke about things , which might simply consider people to be preys. Not only that, the leader told his men not to maim you. If whatever-is-in-the-lake simply eats people, why would it need uninjured people to be kidnapped ?"

The young sheikah bit his upper lip as he was thinking.

"And, why do whatever-is-in-the-lake need to eat people at all ? If somebody was feeding monsters, it would be far simpler and less costly to just buy meat."

He nodded to himself.

"Hmm...the more I think about it, the more I think that nobody is being eaten. There must be something else."


OOC: that's me, my friend. I'm late but uh, better late than never ,right ? Anyway, when my exams are over, I'm leaving France and going to Spain as an ERASMUS (European program which allows students from a member country to go study in another member country...quite nice, really). Which means I'll have much more leisure time and will be able to post more regularly.

Oh, and I have a quite clear idea of what is going on in the lake, so I'm acting a bit as a GM. Hope you don't mind.

[Cralex]

Tila considered Keran’s words carefully and seriously, unconsciously mimicking Keran’s chin-rubbing. Although she was very intelligent, she had not reached Keran’s conclusions before, possibly because his training as a Sheikah helped him keep his cool in the heat of battle enough to notice these discrepancies, and his past experience told him what it might mean. The more she listened, the more convinced she became that Keran was onto something, and she doubted that even taking a night’s rest would change this conclusion.

“Y’know, I think you’re right, Partner. There’s got to be more to this than I thought. Now we HAVE to find out what’s going on! I’d even go right now, but my magic and I need a rest…”

I’ll be he could too, he’s just hiding it.

“Somehow, we’ll put a stop to all of this. Right Partner?”

OOC: Wonderful! I’m glad that we both have a moment to post something, my friend. No worries about being late. As you can see, I was very late as well… Good luck in Spain, I’m sure you will do well. As for the story, I don’t mind at all if you played GM. If you did not have an idea about what was going on, I had one too. It involved a brief cameo appearance from one of my other characters, but it’s fine if we do something else. On the other hand, it might still work out depending on what you have in mind. If you’d like, we can discuss it in more detail if you want to PM or e-mail me… We can’t spoil the surprises, now can we?

[venusflytrap]

Keran nodded.

"We will. But just like you've said, we'll be more efficient if we get some rest first. I'll take first watch, since you seem more tired than I am, and I haven't done my daily meditation anyway."

Keran sat down, cross-legged, and closed his eyes. An uninformed observer might have come to think that the sheikah was asleep, but something in Keran's posture told Tila that although his mind had wandered off somewhere, his body was ready to act on its own, were any danger to appear.

OOC: agreed. I'm PMing you right now.

[Cralex]

Tila remained silent as Keran began to meditate, watching his preparations curiously. A casual observer would have easily come to the conclusion that Tila was not familiar with meditation.

What is he doing? Is this what “meditation” means? He looks almost asleep, but kinda aware at the same time… If that’s so, how can he do that without a fairy?

Tila and Ting looked over at each other. Simultaneously, Tila shrugged at Ting and Ting did a fairy equitant of a shrug back at her. Feeling like she should not disturb Keran, she spoke softly.

“Ok… Good night partner.”

With that, Tila prepared to get some well-earned sleep. She fell asleep quickly, but not before one last thought:

Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually…


OOC: I'm ready for the next chapter if you are. Feel free to start if you wish.